Combined clothes-drier and fire-escape



(No Model.) 7 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. R. LQMAS. COMBINED CLOTHES DRIER AND FIRE ESCAPE.

N0. 573,67 Patented Dec. 22,1896.

uoams PETERS co, FHDTU-LIT 40 WASHINGTON, n. c.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. J. R. LQMAS. UUMBINED CLOTHES DRIER AND FIRE ESCAPE.

No. 573,673. Patented Dec. 22, 1896;

no, PfiO O-LITNO" WASH UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN R. LOMAS, OF WEST HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

COMBINED CLOTHES-DRIER AND FIRE-ESCAPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 573,673, dated December 22, 1896.

Application filed May 4, 1896. Serial No. 590,078. (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN R. LOMAS, of lVest Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in a Combined Clothes-Drier and Fire-Escape; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in-

Figure l, a view in side elevation of one form which my improved clothes-drier and fire-escape may assume; Fig. 2, a detached sectional view showing the means for fastening one of the clothes-driers against rotation; Fig. 3, a plan view of one of the clothes-driers; Fig. 4, a broken view in side elevation, showing a modified form of the revolving clothesdrier, the inclined ladder being made independent thereof; Fig. 5, a plan view of the construction shown in the preceding figure, but with the clothes-drier removed to better show the independently-constructed inclined ladder.

My invention relates to an improved combined clothes-drier and fire-escape, the object being to provide a simple, strong, and convenient apparatus combining the two functions indicated and particularly designed to be used in connection with tenement-houses so high as to preclude their provision with the clothes-driers ordinarily employed.

\Vith these ends in View my invention consists in certain details of construction and combinations of parts as will be hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

Although it will be understood that my improved apparatus is adapted to be applied to buildings many stories in height, it will be obvious that its principle will be illustrated by merely showing it applied to a building of two stories.

In carrying out my invention as herein shown I employa perpendicular shaft A, arranged at a suitable distance, say five feet, from the building B, although the distance may be varied as desired. By preference the shaft A will be made hollow and constitute a stand-pipe, its lower end being connected with any suitable source of water-suppl y. If

used as a stand-pipe, it will be provided with suitable hose connections A A, of which there will be one for each story of the building. These connections will provide for the attachment of the hose for leading water into the stories of the building from the shaft and avoid the use of such long lengths of hose as would be required if the water were brought from the street-level to the various stories of the building. As herein shown, the shaft is supported and stayed by means of horizontal stays or braces A connecting it with the building, but it is not necessary that these braces should have the particular form shown. Upon the shaft I mount a series of revolving clothes-driers, of which there may be one for each story of the building, although that is not imperative.

The revolving clothes-drier shown in Figs. 1 and 3 is octagonal in general form and tapers at its lower end. It is composed of radially-arranged frame-pieces 0, connected at their inner ends with hub-like frame-plates C, mounted upon the shaft so as to rotate freely thereupon. The outer portions of these radial frame-pieces are united by means of clothes-lines G which may be made of wire or metallic rods, and which, in addition to their function of providing for hanging out clothes, serve also to maintain the framepieces in their proper positions. Only seven sides of the octagon are provided with clotheslines, one side being left suflioiently open to allowa passage from the building into the drier when the open side of the drier is brought into line with the window by revolving the drier. This open side of the drieris furnished with an inclined series of ladder-rungs D, which are extended between two of the frame portions C and form a ladder leading downwardly toward the shaft. Near the lower end of the ladder thus formed I locate an open platform E, from which access is had to the vertical ladders F, located in the center of the revolving drier and affording communication up and down through the series of driers. Preferably each revolving drier will be provided with threevertical ladders F, as shown in Fig. 3, as that increases the convenience of the device, but one vertical ladder will answer the purpose of the invention.

It is designed that ordinarily the driers shall normally be held against rotation bymeans of a fastening device, (shown in Fig. 2,) to consist of a pivotal bail G and adapted to be engaged with retaining-pins G, located in the sill of the window of the story which has the drier adjacent to it; but the particular means employed for fastening the revolving drier, if any means are employed, may be variously modified. The drier is supported upon the shaft, as shown in Fig. 1, by means of a collar I-I, rigidly secured thereto and having the lower hub-like frame-plate O resting upon it.

As shown in Fig. l, the upper story of the building is not provided with a revolving drier, but with a skeleton fire-escape, which need not be described in detail more than to say that it comprises an inclined ladder I and also comprises vertical ladders I, of which only one is shown. In case the inclined ladder leads to the roof it would not be necessary that the fire-escape should be provided with the ladders I.

In the modified form of my device shown in Figs. 4 and 5 the revolving clothes-drier J does not include the inclined ladder K, leading from the building to the shaft, but the said ladder is made independent of the drier and secured directly to the building at its upper end and at its lower end to the shaft A through the medium of the brace L, which stays and supports the shaft; but in this modified construction the revolving drier must be provided with one or more of the vertical ladders F.

In view of the modifications shown and suggested, it is apparent that in carrying out my invention I may make changes and alterations in the construction illustrated and described, and I would therefore have it understood that I do not limit myself thereto, but hold myself at liberty to make such changes as fairly fall within the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A revolving clothes-drier comprising an inclined ladder leading from a point at or near its outer edge to a point near its center.

2. A revolving clothes-drier comprising an inclined ladder leading from a point at or near its outer edge toa point near its center, and also comprising a centrally-arranged vertical ladder extending from its upper to its lower end.

3. A revolving polygonal clothes-drier having its several sides occupied by suitable c1othes-lines except one side, where they are omitted, and which is left open to form a passage-way for an inclined ladder incorporated in and leading from a point at or near the edge of the drier to a point near the center thereof, and the said drier also'comprising a centrally-arranged vertical ladder extending from its upper to its lower end.

4. The combination with a perpendicular shaft, of a series of revolving clothes-driers located one above the other on the said shaft,

and each containing a centrally-arranged ladder extending from its upper to its lower end, whereby communication between the several driers is provided for, and one or more inclined ladders extending between the shaft and the building adjacent to which it is placed, and forming communication through the driers between the building and the vertical ladders before mentioned.

5. The combination with a perpendicular shaft, of lateral stays for connecting the same with the building adjacent to which the shaft is placed, a plurality of revolving clothesdriers mounted upon the shaft, one above the other and between the said stays, and each furnished with a centrally-arranged vertical ladder extending from its upper to its lower end, whereby access between the several driers is provided for, and each drier being also provided with an inclined ladder ext-ending from a point at or near its outer edge to a point near its center, whereby communication between the building and the vertical ladders before mentioned is provided for.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN R. LOMAS. lVitnesses FRED O. EARLE, LILLIAN D. KELSEY. 

